ROME — Top officials from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments will be principal celebrants at Tridentine liturgies during a conference in Rome this week. The Tridentine rite, in use before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, is also called the extraordinary form of the liturgy.

U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, secretary of the Vatican congregation, will celebrate solemn pontifical vespers and benediction in the extraordinary form at the Church of St. Stephen of the Abyssinians, located inside the Vatican walls, Jan. 6.

On Jan. 7, Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the worship congregation, will celebrate a solemn pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The conference is being co-sponsored by the U.S.-based Confraternity of Catholic Clergy and the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy to mark the Year for Priests.

Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the church’s highest court, will be the main celebrant at the concluding liturgy of the conference Jan. 8. He will celebrate a solemn pontifical Mass in the ordinary — or new – form in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Archbishop Burke celebrated a Mass in the extraordinary form in St. Peter’s Basilica last October.

Seriously and yet unfortunately BXVI doesn’t have much time on his hands. He needs to mandate the Latin Mass at each parish by a given date. Any room left for avoidance will be avoided by local Bishops and parish priests in the US.

It seems like just yesterday that I started posting here and was regularly attacked for my views on the Liturgy and the Crisis in the Church. Now the world has turned and His Holiness is starting to repair the holes torn in the sails of the Barque of Peter. Deo Gratias!

(And where are Sinkspur and CatholicGuy these days?)

4
posted on 01/04/2010 10:23:35 AM PST
by narses
('in an odd way this is cheering news!'.)

Sounds like a success to me. Seriously. The mass has intrinsic merits that apply, even if no one comes, right? I happen to believe the traditional liturgy a better form of worship: more coherent, core connected to the life of the Church. The traditional liturgy is the greatest artistic achievement in the history of the world, and its abandonment has been an act of barbarism. Can any person ignorant of it consider himself truly civilized? I doubt it.

We’ve seen the same here in Dayton, OH; the latin mass is not full, but it is growing. While we stand in the shadow of a much larger NO crowd, their hair is much grayer/white than ours. If it were not for the hypnotic effect of the Gregorian Chant, the crying babies at the latin mass would dominate the scene. How long does it take for good demographics to tilt the tables? The latin mass communities have the youth and they have the vocations. It may be the case that the new priests will start cutting into the herd and driving them towards a beautiful liturgy again. No need to “reform” the Bugnini disaster, just pick up traditions where they were left off.

I think that 100 people in a parish of 900 families is a great success. We will keep our TLM.

However, what I was trying to convey is that a TLM at every parish may not be fruitful because of the priest shortage. If one can drive a couple miles and attend, then see by the amount of attendees if another is needed, the TLM may grow on its own.

Sweeping changes drove Catholics away. Let’s not sweep back. The beauty and reverence of the TLM needs no promotion, just availability.

While I think the OF Mass is more susceptible to abuse than the EF, I must say that it is possible to have a reverent OF Mass.

Our parish does it.

We also chant the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin every First Sunday. One of our young Parochial Vicars is gradually adding more Latin (the Mysterium Fidei (with response from the choir), the preface and conclusion of the Pater Noster, etc.) . . . sort of softening up the congregation, if you will. Rumor hath it that the FSSP's DVD is circulating in the vicinity . . . .

Our archdiocese has an FSSP parish that was enthusiastically supported by our retired Archbishop (who is still very active, sort of a de facto suffragan) and is thriving.

We do have some crazy laypeople and a few heterodox priests (you know who you are, guys!) but by and large this is a conservative, orthodox Archdiocese.

Wow netmilsmom, do you happen to go to Sts Peter and Paul? That's a parish by us that has six holy masses plus one Tridentine on Sundays. And my husband and daughter and I just went to a Tridentine Mass on Jan.1, and then again on Jan.3 at the following Church in Chicago. It was incredible. I'd love to see more Tridentine Masses available.

The beauty and reverence of the TLM needs no promotion, just availability.

Agreed 100%. I have recently been involved with a parish trying to re-introduce the TLM. The pastor is all for it, but has been slow to brush up his own skills and to enlist servers from his own parish, so he has been relying on our team for monthly celebrations. I've had to inform him that we can't keep this up, and have advised that the best thing he can do is make the TLM an every-Sunday feature, and then give it time to put down roots. The liturgy itself will do all the rest.

The pastor ... has been slow to brush up his own skills and to enlist servers from his own parish, so he has been relying on our team for monthly celebrations. I've had to inform him that we can't keep this up

I was in a similar situation although it was (some) choir members from our TLM who were helping out a pastor at a nearby parish to start a schola to chant Vespers (EF) once a month. The original plan was to have our singers be the "starter" for their schola. Well, several months went by and no singers from their parish ever materialized. We finally told the pastor that we couldn't support his parish indefinitely and eventually stopped going.

I talked this over with my pastor. It’s a real challenge getting some of these guys to take off the training wheels and ride. Also it’s a bit scary, as their formation is so sketchy you worry about the wacky things they might try, even with the best intentions.

IMO a big part of the problem is that younger pastors have not been formed in traditional liturgy, nor even in the use of Latin. It’s all a foreign country to them, which they have visited once or twice as sympathetic tourists. We laity for whom this has been our normal mode of worship for decades sometimes forget the disadvantage of most diocesan priests in this respect. They need just the right blend of encouragement and tough love.

A week ago I sent a tough love e-mail to the pastor I mentioned above, who’s been dragging his feet over getting up to speed. So far no response. It hurts, because my guys really really want to see the TLM flourish, and it kills us to say “no mas” (pun not intended, but what the heck). But I can’t ask lay men to serve at three or even four Masses on a Sunday because another pastor hasn’t been able to get commitments from his own folks. If those commitments are simply not to be had, he should celebrate alone and put the rest in God’s hands. Isn’t that how St. Jean Vianney did it?

If asked, I know just what I want to say to those priests who’re putting off the heavy lifting: “Father, souls are at stake. Every day is a gift — and eternity is forever.”

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